In the dark of night, Nessa hurried across the inner courtyard through the drizzly cold. Torches mounted on the stone walls spread their flickering glow across the stony ground and up toward the battlements where guardsmen patrolled in battle attire, their weapons holstered at their sides.
She’d known this night would come, when tensions would once again fester and rise between the clans. The MacKenzie clan desired their land and the strategic position they held on the edge of Loch Alsh close to the north-eastern tip of Sleat. The waterways they guarded were a prize to behold and their enemy was well aware of it. Control was what the MacKenzie chief wanted, and what he intended to get.
She stepped inside the front door, untied her black cloak and draped it over her arm as she proceeded toward the great hall. A buzz of voices echoed toward her and she took a deep, fortifying breath and entered the vaulted room with its high wooden beamed rafters and blazing fireplace. Sorcha had already asked the servants to move the trestle tables to the far side of the hall. Sleeping pallets had been laid down to accommodate the additional number of warriors who’d arrived from clan MacDonald to aid them.
She hurried around the hall and knocked on the chief’s solar door. “Gilleoin, ’tis I.”
“Come in, Nessa.”
She entered and closed the door behind her.
Gilleoin sat behind his desk and Kenneth in the padded chair next to the blazing fire.
She walked to the narrow window overlooking the courtyard and gripped the stone windowsill.
“Have you seen aught more?” Gilleoin asked her.
“Aye, my visions are strong this eve. Ivan has arrived safely and found his mate awaiting him.” She turned, faced them both. “A vision has also shown me we’re about to receive the most interesting aid. Three warriors of immense strength are soon to arrive.”
“We’ll need more than an additional three sword-hands to win this war.”
“These men are unlike any warriors who have come to our shores afore.”
“How do you mean?” Kenneth leaned forward, elbows to his knees and the fire’s glow lighting the bits of steel studded within his thick brown leather vest.
“They can shift shape and draw claws as you, your brother, and your father can.”
“How is that possible?” He shoved to his feet. “Father is the first.”
“These three warriors are the ‘power of three,’ our future as well as our past. If we wish to win this war, to save our people and to give hope to those yet still to come, then we must listen to them well. Far into the future, they are all that we shall become.”
Aye, the prophecy was in motion, and very soon, the ‘power of three’ would be unveiled.
Chapter 9
Bottom snug in the curve of her mate’s groin, Isla lay curled on her side in Iain’s king-size bed two weeks following their first joining. Never had she awoken more content and rested in her life. Here at their cabin, they’d made love every day, lazed together by the river and fished and tramped. They’d bonded so strongly, their merged link now a rich entwining of their minds and her love for him so deep, it hurt just to walk a few steps from his side.
She wriggled around and squinted as the morning sunshine streamed through the sheer white nets and played its lacy pattern over the wooden beamed walls of his room. The partially opened window blew the nets inward and circulated Scotland’s freshest air, but it was his warm woodsy pine scent that overrode it all and made this space so heavenly.
“If you’re awake,” he murmured, eyes closed as a ray of sunshine played over the vivid midnight-black of his shoulder-length locks and across his high cheeks, “then I demand my morning kiss.”
She trailed one finger along his jaw then over the sharply defined cleft in his chin. She kissed the delectable indent then nipped his bottom lip. His breathing changed and her smile widened. “I’m going to take a shower. Care to join me?”
“Hell, yes.” He slowly opened one eye. “There is nothing I love more than seeing your skin flush under the heat of the water.”
“It’s not the hot water that causes the flush.” She shoved the forest-green leafed bedcovers back and skipped into the bathroom. The lovely rich colors of gold and cream greeted her, as well as a massive mirror along one wall, which reflected the bedroom and Iain already standing guard at her back, his gorgeous body on stunning display and making her ache for him all over again. “I’m not sure I’m going to be able to return to civilization today.”
“I’ve kept you all to myself for a fortnight now and my clan will descend on us if we don’t show ourselves soon.” He reached past her, opened the glass shower door, turned the lever on and stuck his hand under the water. “This is a perfect temperature.”
“I’m nervous about meeting your parents. I ran for so long.”